Where the passionate are fed. Where the spiritually starving are nourished. “Artists,” she said, “are simply people who are passionate enough to imagine things that do not yet exist.” Seona Reid, Principal of Glasgow School of Art, graduation 2003

Cosmic Sabbath

For the past 20-some years, I have experienced what can only be called a Cosmic Sabbath, twice a year. This is my way of explaining how I sometimes get sick during the busiest weeks of my working life. It often happens Holy Week.

It happened this past week, just after I finished reading the exquisitely written Sabbath in the Suburbs. Actually, I read it twice. The second reading was especially inspirational in my role as a wife and mother, not to mention a person who is supposed to be professionally spiritual.

This is what I learned from a week of coughing, gargling, napping, and sultry whispers during which I missed several Very Important Meetings, Phone Calls, and Emails. In hopes of surviving a week of the cruds, I channeled the amazing MAMD and others who reminded me that:

At the risk of sounding Mourdockian, God has a way of slowing me down when I consciously or unconsciously act as if I’m All That. But what makes this different from believing that overworking is “something God intended,” I realize that this is my choice. A poor choice.

Why do we believe that not keeping the Sabbath is an okay commandment to ditch?

7 responses to “Cosmic Sabbath”

yep – i remember my therapist saying to me (many years ago) “what if you took care of yourself before you got sick? Do you think maybe your body is trying to tell you something?” The puzzled look on my face said it all.

My mentor, Mary Baine Rudolph, used to lose her calendar once a year. By my count, she did this 5 times in the five years we worked together in Florida. She decided it was a sign from God to leave the church office, go home, drink wine, talk long walks on the beach, and wait and see if anybody called her and asked where she was….!!! kind of a precursor to the cosmic sabbath!!!